Made By Smree

  And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things (Luke 10:41 KJV). Sometimes I believe the Lord looks down on me from above, shakes His head, and declares (and I’m paraphrasing here): “Honey, you really need to calm down.” I, like a modern version of the encumbered sister Martha, often find myself worrying over a great many things.  There is little doubt that there is a lot to worry over in day to day life. There are larger scale concerns such as inflation or simply the economy in general, countries at war, and potential for health crises, or the “smaller” things of life like a busted water pipe in your home or unexpected car repair. The list could easily go on and on, but instead of thinking about all the things we have to potentially worry over, I want to share with you something that the Lord showed me recently that made me really stop and rethink my thought processes regarding worry.   One day, while driving to work, I began t

Do you like watching unboxing videos?  I do! I've also decided to try my hand at making a few. I uploaded my latest one to YouTube today, which you can watch below. I did an unboxing of the Sakura Season Bokksu, which is full of absolutely gorgeous (and delicious!) snacks from Japan.  Which snack would you want to try first? <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W-FYsqZCzUY" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> Feel free to subscribe to my YouTube while you're there. I'm trying to post some fun stuff occasionally, and would love for you to join me! 

  As you’ve seen from some of my previous book review posts, I’ve been given the opportunity to read a few ARC (advance reader copies) of several books over the past couple years.  For some of them, I was asked by the author to read and review.  However, a few months back I received a message on Goodreads extending an invitation for me to join a site called BookSirens , and after doing some research into it, I decided to join.  And if you enjoy reading and reviewing books, you should consider joining too!  On BookSirens, authors can post their books in order to obtain reviews on various sites like Amazon, Goodreads, and others.  Readers can join (for free!) and review the books (again, for free!) that are posted.  There are thousands of books available, from all sorts of genres, and I’ve been impressed with what I’ve read so far!  Some of them have been better than others, naturally, but I’ve been able to read some great works for free! The amount of time you’re given to read a book

The Timepiece and the Girl Who Went Astray by O.R. Simmonds My rating: 0 of 5 stars View all my reviews

  Shortly after my last post, I realized I may have gotten ahead of myself a little bit.  Oops.  My last post, if you recall, was the very first article I had written and submitted as an Honorary Reporter for Korea.net.  But I completely forgot to mention that I had been accepted as an Honorary Reporter, much less explain any of it.   So that’s what I’m doing now! I found out about the Honorary Reporter program earlier in the year through a Facebook group for the K-Friends program I joined last year.  After doing some research into it, I applied for the program back in March, and found out I had been accepted in April.  Also around the same time, I applied to be part of the 2021 K-Influencer Academy, another program offered by Korea.net, and found out I had been accepted into that as well!  But what does all of this mean ? The Honorary Reporters, to quote this article from Korea.net : “consist of foreign nationals both in and out of Korea who promote Korean culture, information and e

Maybe you have decided that this year will be the year that you learn Korean (or maybe another language!).  While learning a new language can be incredibly rewarding and beneficial, it can also be a difficult endeavor.  Though I am not a language learning expert, here are three simple tips for Korean learners that have helped me along my journey. 1) Do something language study related every single day.  Whether it’s five minutes or fifty minutes, do something every single day that can help you progress.  For example, I typically try to spend around thirty minutes each day studying Korean.  But let’s be honest, sometimes that just isn’t possible!  To help myself stay on track, I utilize the Duolingo app, and here’s why;  On days I don’t have a lengthy amount of time to study, I can do one or two quick lessons, or even just a simple review.  Even those small increments of time will make an impact, and can help you along your language-learning journey. 2) Use a variety of materials.

  First of all - Happy Earth Day!  Secondly, as a brief aside, let me say that this post was not sponsored in any way.  I just personally like the products included here and wanted to share them.  That is all!  As I said, today is Earth Day, which is basically a day set aside to bring attention to the environmental movement, or “to diversify, educate, and activate the environmental movement worldwide”, according to EarthDay.org . I do not in any manner profess to be the leading authority on the environmental movement, but I have made the conscious decision to try to be less wasteful, and to make some small changes in order to do what I can for the planet we call home.  Do I still use single-use plastics, and generate more trash that I probably should?  The answer is yes.  But - doing something is better than doing nothing, and my point here is that even small changes can help. The first change I made was to use less disposable plastic bottles.  I drink a lot of water over the course o